"India won't get involved in SL conflict": Moonesinghe
by Bandula Jayasekara
Excerpts of an interview with Mangala Moonesinghe, a former Member of Parliament
and High Commissioner to India twice and the UK.
Q: What happened to the Mangala Moonesinghe select committee,
in which you got the two major parties to adopt a common stand on
the ethnic problem.
I, as a member of the opposition, then moved in parliament that we appoint a
parliamentary select committee to look into the ethnic question at the time. This was in
1991. My motion was unanimously adopted by the entire parliament and we set up the
committee. The first thing we did was to invite the public to respond to the committee
on the issues that we had raised. The public responded in a way that they came and
gave evidence as witnesses. At other times they did send their reports and
memoranda to the committee. It lasted about one and a half years. It was the largest
parliamentary select committee because all the parties were represented in it. We
came to a conclusion at the end of it whereby we recommended to parliament that we
de-merge the North and the East. It was merged under the Indo - Lanka Agreement.
They did not consult the people either of the North or the East. Anyway on the
preponderance of evidence placed before us; we recommended that these two
provinces should be de-merged. Two, that more political power should be given to the
peripheral units, the provinces, and three, that a new constitution based on the lines
of the Indian constitution should be adopted by parliament. I presented my copy to
parliament and it was accepted and they immediately wanted it printed as a sessional
paper. It is now a sessional paper Soon after that the parliament was dissolved. What I
can say is today we are moving towards something that we recommended, a Federal
State.
Q-But why did you propose that the North East should be de-
merged?
Because of the evidence from people who came both from the North and the East. All
political parties, all religious groups, all NGOs various people came and gave
evidence. On the basis of their evidence it was nothing but fair for us to recommend
the de-merger of these two provinces. Because in the North the population is about
98% Tamil. In the East it was at that time 45% Tamil, 33% Muslim and 21% Sinhalese.
So there was a mixture of the three communities in the East and they recommended
that we should de-merge the East and that is why we suggested it. But of course since
then a lot of water has flowed under the bridges and now it is accepted that the North
and the East are one unit. It is also part of the Indo Lanka accord.
Q- What should be the role of the Muslims in this Peace Process?
The Muslims are the second largest community in the East. They are spread all over.
Muslims are a recognizable ethnic minority and I think what ever you do regarding the
sovereignty and the changes the demands of all communities must be met. If the
Muslim demand is to have greater representation, greater delegation of power that I
think is a very reasonable request and it must be granted.
Q-In the select committee you were able to get the two major parties
as well as the other parties involved. Why can't you get these
parties together now?
The problem is sometimes the question of personalities. There are you know, an
innumerable number of questions that arise in this. But we have to strive to bring all
these parties together for the future and the benefit of our country. I have never
deviated from that role and I intend pursuing that role because peace is non-
negotiable to this country. We must all have peace. We all have the right to be heard.
We all have a right to live in this country after all it's all the communities, All the
religions, everybody who got together and brought independence. Therefore now we
cannot divide, we have to accommodate the requests of all the people. We are all Sri
Lankan's
Q- But is it possible?
Well you have to keep on trying. These things take time. It takes a lot of time. You
have to have a lot of patience and understanding. For example the IRA problem in
Ireland has taken just over 50 years. Take the Israel/Palestine problem it is just
getting resolved. So you have to keep at it until it is time and not abandon it. That is
the most important thing. It calls upon a lot of patience and understanding by all of us
and the public. I think the public wants peace. I am quite convinced of that.
Q- But the public is fed up with bickering between the politicians.
How do you see that as a former member of parliament?
That is also one of the obstacles in our way that we must overcome. In South Africa it
took almost 50 years. And South Africa is a country that is today doing very well. They
have mingled very well, they are all South Africans and they had an excellent leader in
Nelson Mandela who forgave and forgot. Now that is the attitude we need from all our
politicians.
Q- You are someone who is accepted by Ranil Wickremasinghe,
the President and the Prime Minister. Do you think after the election
Mahinda Rajapakse and Ranil Wickremasinghe will be able to work
together?
I have known them both for a long time. We were colleagues in parliament. I have
heard the utterances both of Ranil Wickremasinghe as well as Mahinda Rajapakse;
basically as individuals they want peace. But sometimes there are other pressures
applied on them. But I am confident that whoever wins this Presidential Election will
invite the other to be a part of the Government and of the cabinet.
Q- There is a demand and a request for India to play a greater role
in the Peace Process. Do you think they will play a greater role?
I have been there for eight years so I have met lots of leaders along with our leaders. I
go with them when they go to meet the leaders. The Indians came in once and they
were asked to move out. They wish us very well, but from their utterances they will not
come into replace any other facilitator or peace negotiator. I can candidly say they
want the Norwegians to carry on. It is like India is playing a part because the
Norwegians report to India each time they have a meeting. The Indians are quite
confident that the Norwegians can handle the job and the Indians also see the
pressures on the Norwegians. Any peace maker puts his life at stake. The Indians see
what happened to them as peace makers so I don’t think they want to get
involved. They want to maintain the good relations with us and they feel the
Norwegians are doing a good job. They want the Norwegians to continue because
they are kept informed.
Q- But the Indians came in as a Peace Keeping Force not as peace
makers.
Well they came as a peace keeping force because they wanted to make peace and
ensure that peace is retained. Unfortunately it did not last very long because there
was reneging by one of the sides and the peace broke down. But their purpose when
they came here was to ensure like the Monitors that peace is maintained. They came
with their armed forces to see that that peace would be retained.
Q- But that is not what is happening now because some people in
the South and some democratic Tamils as well as certain sections
of the Muslims are not happy with the Norwegians. How do you see
that even though you say that they keep India informed?
Well as I said there has to be a lot of understanding, it is not easy. The Norwegians
themselves know what they are handling. They not are having two equal entities to
deal with. You will see on the one side there is a Democratic Government concerned
about Human Rights, concerned about political pluralism, concerned about the rule of
law. On the other side is a group of political organization whose weapon for
reconciliation has used different tools. So it takes time, you have to have patience and
gradually bring them in. The fact remains that people who were at one time using
violence have moved into the mainstream. On the Tamil side in the North there were a
number of parties who were violent organization who have come into the mainstream.
In the South you have the JVP which was a violent organization who has come into the
mainstream. I see inch by inch movement also in that direction. It will take time. But we
cannot go back to war.
Q-But what about the LTTE's air wing and the LTTE's naval force.
India has only expressed concern nothing else. How do you see
that?
The two entities are different. They would also want to make sure that if the peace
process breaks down they would not be annihilated. So any organization of that
nature would naturally want to ensure that they have all this in place in case the
negotiations break down. If you take in India the Nargar's or the Assami's in the North
East you will find that while they are talking they are also arming themselves. That
happened in Thailand too. So you have to understand and have a lot of patience
because ultimately if you have peace this country is going to gain from that peace. We
have a lot of problems, unemployment, problems of people being killed. Therefore if
we have peace it will generate so much of employment, investment, money will flow
into this country. So I think on the whole for the poor people in the rural areas who get
killed in times of war we need this peace. We have to have patience to go forward.
Q- But aren't you justifying the LTTE arming them selves at the time
of a Cease Fire.
No, I am not justifying it. I wish they would change this strategy but I am an optimist
and I feel that gradually it will take time, but we may be able to bring them together.
The record is that they have moved from one extreme position gradually, they have
started talking, they even invited the press. They never met the press earlier. Things
are moving so as civilized democracies we must have patience and move. Because
the final fruits that we will reap will be for our country, for all the people of Sri Lanka.
Q-At the moment we have divided North East and a divided South.
How do you think we can unite the South when the two major
parties are at loggerheads?
Well I have been a Member of Parliament for 17 years, I represented a rural area, I
move with the rural people, I know the hearts and minds of the rural people and my
own view is that they are so different to the people living in urban Colombo. The rural
people want peace it is their sons and children who get killed. It is not the sons and
children of the people in Colombo. So the rural people I believe want peace and I am
quite convinced of that.
Q-Are the politicians misleading the rural people then?
Well the politicians I think have to understand this problem. Sometimes you know
politicians and political parties vie with each other to get power and they feel that if
one of the parties gains ascendancy it will harm the rest. But there are lots amongst
both these political party leaders who want peace in this country and they feel that
they have to keep on confronting each other.
Q. Do we have hope for a National government?
I believe we have. You take my Parliamentary select committee. They came together.
35 MPs have signed that. For the first time Both the UNP and the SLFP signed
something, got together on the ethnic question. I have a feeling we have 93% literacy.
Our people are educated. People are reasonable and we have 4 major religions in
this country. All preach peace and I feel there is a future we have to be patient and go
on.
Q. You were extremely close to the late Foreign Minister Lakshman
Kadirgamar. What were his views in bringing peace to Sri Lanka?
We were friends even before we entered Parliament. We've known each other for a
long time. Lakshman was also a man of peace. But he like every one of us believed
that peace must not be given to anybody without any conditions. There has to be safe
guards in arriving at peace and Lakshman's position was that there must be fairness
in the peace and that's what he wanted.
Q. Mr. Moonesinghe you are the grand nephew of the late
Anagarika Dharmapala. In your opinion what's the role the Bikkhus
should play in this conflict?
Well the role the Bikkhus should play is a role of peace. The Buddha gave up a
Kingdom because he wanted peace and Niravana for everybody. It is known in the
story of his life that he once, he saw two clans in the North going to war because they
couldnsolve a dispute on water rights or river rights and he intervened and he brought
peace. The Tripitaka; has never said that one can accede to violence. If you look at
the Karaniya Metta Suthra which is recited in all our homes. It is the most popular
Suthra and a part of Buddhism. Translated into English it says a person must have
loving kindness to all living beings. Not only human beings. Those seen and those
unseen, those living far those living near. To those born and to those to be born.
Therefore, if you are a Buddhist that compassion, that love for all beings must be
there.
Q. It's seems that you are not happy with the role played by the
Buddhist Monks today.
I don't think that they are preaching war. But they want a better deal. The monks
should do it the way the Buddha has taught them to do with a lot of compassion and
kindness. I think the majority of the monks are dealing with it in that way, with a lot of
compassion and kindness.
Q. How do you see the role of the JVP in the present context?
Because when you were in Parliament the JVP didn't have such
representation in the Parliament.
The JVP is a party that at one time had no faith in discussions and negotiation. They
had faith in violence. They were impatient like the people in the North but they have
moved on. I have helped them. I appeared for the JVP on the Parliament bomb case. I
have helped them with the campaign, whenever they were arrested. As a lawyer I went
and met them and saved a lot of their lives. They have now moved forward. They are
now accepting the main stream. However, they still have some hangovers. But I have
confidence that they will move forward and realize that there must be some
reconciliation on the part of all sides. They also announced that, they were not totally
for war.
Q. What do you propose as a solution to this problem?
My solution is have patience and work with everybody. There must be fairness to all
the communities, to all the religious groups, to the multi lingual groups and they must
all be satisfied. They must come under one banner. The Sri Lankan banner. We can
devolve power to them and give them, some sort of space but there must be a limit.
I'm very certain of this. Our state has to be a sovereign state. There cannot be two
states. There cannot be a separation of this country. As long as anybody does not
want a separate state, I think we could work within. 137 countries out of the 191 have
changed their constitution when they had problems like this. They have also changed
their constitutions to accommodate minority requests, like this and they are doing very
well. I'm an optimist as and I feel that gradually given time, you and I will see within our
lifetime peace that is satisfactory to everybody. That will benefit this country. That will
attend to the employment problems of this country; attend to the poverty of this
country because a lot of economic power is going to come here. [Courtesy: LACNET]